Interview with Jiahui & Yixuan | Passionate Experienced UX Designers

Jiahui: My name is Jiahui, and I’m a UX Designer with four years of experience. I love exploring different industries, and I’ve worked on projects ranging from healthcare and education to back-end management, live streaming, and e-commerce. Tackling diverse fields allows me to understand varied user needs and motivations.

I’m passionate about observing the details around me and delving into the ‘why’ behind them—like why ketchup bottles are designed with caps on the bottom or why ticket stubs are necessary on public transport. This curiosity drives me to approach design from a critical, inquisitive perspective, always looking for deeper insights that enhance the user experience.

Yixuan: From the moment I could hold a crayon, the world around me transformed into a vibrant canvas. As a child, every wall in our home bore witness to my early experiments with color and form. My parents often found that each corner of our house became a silent testimony to moments of inspiration and emotion, capturing my unbounded creativity. This early love affair with beauty was a profound expression of my inner world.

Driven by a fascination with human behavior, I pursued a degree in psychology, which led me to discover the powerful intersection of design and psychology. This inspired me to enter the field of UX design, earning a Master’s in Information Science from Cornell University, where I created an award-winning augmented reality app to help children learn math.

Now, as a UX Designer at Google, I focus on creating designs that are not only visually appealing but emotionally impactful, with a vision to push the boundaries of design and psychology, and inspire the next generation of designers to blend aesthetics with human understanding.

Jiahui: I chose to become a digital designer because I’m passionate about connecting with people through thoughtful design and addressing real-world issues. With a natural curiosity about the world, I’m drawn to the challenge of understanding users on a deeper level and finding creative solutions that truly resonate with their needs.

I’ve always believed that design is a powerful tool to simplify complex problems and improve lives in meaningful ways. The opportunity to work across various fields and explore diverse perspectives keeps me motivated, as each project lets me question assumptions, learn, and create a tangible impact that contributes to a better world.

Yixuan: Ever since I was a child, I've been utterly captivated by the magical world of cartoons and comic books. They weren't just stories or drawings to me—they were windows into a universe where anything was possible, where colors spoke louder than words, and where the underdog could always save the day.

I spent countless hours sketching my favorite characters and inventing my own, trying to capture their heroic feats and hilarious escapades on paper. These early artistic adventures were my first steps into the realm of design and art.

One afternoon, when I was about eight, I sat on my room floor surrounded by crayons, having just drawn my dog as a superhero—cape and flying goggles included. When my mom saw it, she laughed and asked to hang it on the fridge, a simple act that sparked something in me: the desire not just to create, but to connect with others through my art.

As I grew, this passion evolved into a deeper understanding of design as a tool for communication, capable of bringing joy, sparking thought, and inspiring action. Looking back, it was that superhero dog and the fridge gallery that ignited my journey into design—a passion to create work that resonates and adds a little magic to everyday life.

Jiahui: As a UX Designer at Advantage Solutions, I work on solving a range of practical, real-world challenges. My role involves addressing specific user needs and refining experiences to make our solutions as effective and accessible as possible. Beyond my daily work, I’m deeply passionate about social issues and often look for ways that design can positively impact society.

I believe that good design can help address complex social topics, from mental health to inclusivity, and my goal is to create solutions that not only solve problems but also contribute to a broader understanding and empathy for diverse user needs.

Yixuan: In my career as a user experience designer, I am responsible for leading design projects that ensure our solutions are both aesthetically pleasing and practical while optimizing the user experience. Beyond my day-to-day work, I also serve as the design lead for my personal project, MindMender, a platform focused on mental health that combines advanced AI technology with deep user experience insights to provide innovative mental health support and solutions.

As the design lead, my role involves guiding our design team through every step from conceptualization to product realization. Our goal is to create an intuitive and engaging platform that allows users easy access to a variety of mental health tools. This includes AI-driven psychological analyses, AI-assisted journaling tools, and a smart recommendation system that suggests the most suitable therapists and mental health programs based on specific user needs.

Additionally, I collaborate closely with the technical team to ensure our design solutions integrate seamlessly into the existing technological architecture. By integrating with devices like the Apple Watch, we utilize biometric data to further personalize the user experience, providing more accurate mental health support.

Through the MindMender project, I am able to apply my design expertise to a truly meaningful area, driving innovation and accessibility in mental health services and helping more people maintain and enhance their mental well-being effectively and affordably. This project reflects my professional ethos and commitment to societal contribution, aiming to improve people's quality of life through the power of design.

Our favorite type of digital design is interactive design. We believe that by understanding users’ deeper needs and combining creativity with functionality, we can create a more meaningful experience for them. This approach not only enhances user satisfaction but also challenges our team’s skills, pushing us to solve real-world issues. This blend of excitement and fulfillment is what we find most rewarding.

We believe that a good design is human-centered, prioritizing usability while uncovering and fulfilling needs that users might not even realize they have. It maintains simplicity and intuitiveness, meeting users’ basic requirements while delivering deeper value that enhances their experience. A truly successful design anticipates these unspoken needs, creating a sense of connection and satisfaction for the user.

Our design style is primarily minimalist and elegant. It creates a visual experience that feels comfortable and trustworthy while remaining functionally straightforward and easy to understand. Even for those without interaction training, our design is intuitive enough to be used effortlessly. We aim to provide an experience that is both relaxed and engaging, helping to bridge the gap between the product and its users.

Our design process begins with a deep understanding of our users and their needs. We start with research, gathering insights, and analyzing user behavior. At the beginning, we often explore multiple topics, but we recognize the importance of creating socially valuable solutions. This led us to focus on mental health. In the ideation phase, we brainstorm and sketch various solutions, emphasizing how to deliver genuine value to users.

We also examine existing products on the market, identifying why they fail to meet users' needs, as we enjoy uncovering problems and questioning everything. Once the concept is solidified, we develop prototypes, testing and refining them through user feedback. In the final implementation, we pay close attention to detail, ensuring that our design aligns with our core principles of functionality, simplicity, and aesthetics.

We draw inspiration from a variety of sources, including user feedback, industry trends, and our own diverse backgrounds. Coming from a design school, one of us is skilled at identifying social issues, while the other, with a psychology background, has a strong understanding of users' deeper needs.

This combination gives us a heightened sensitivity to problems, helping us uncover insights that may not be immediately obvious. Additionally, we look to fields like art and technology for innovative approaches, which allows us to create solutions that are both meaningful and deeply engaging.

We are most excited about trends that combine technology with user-centered approaches, particularly in areas like AI-driven personalization, mental health solutions, and immersive experiences. Advances in artificial intelligence allow us to create more tailored user experiences, making digital interactions feel personal and relevant.

Mental health in digital design is another trend we are passionate about, as it enables us to develop tools that promote well-being and address social challenges. Additionally, immersive experiences like augmented reality offer new ways to engage users, making digital interactions more meaningful and memorable.

Thank you! Winning the 2024 Vega Awards is an incredible honor for our team, as it not only acknowledges our hard work but also validates our ideas and abilities. This award reinforces our commitment to creating meaningful, user-centered designs, and it shows that our approach resonates within the industry.

This recognition motivates us to keep pushing boundaries, exploring innovative solutions, and making a positive impact on users' lives. For us, this award celebrates our shared dedication and reminds us of the value our work brings to the digital design field.

Our winning project focuses on mental health, an area we feel is critically important in today’s high-pressure society. Many people are forced to cope with stressful environments, yet mental health awareness and accessibility are often lacking, which can delay necessary support and treatment. This has affected even our own friends and family, making the issue deeply personal.

We chose to enter this project because it reflects our commitment to creating tools that can raise awareness and provide meaningful support. Winning this award for a project so close to us reaffirms our goal of positively impacting lives through digital design.

The biggest challenge with this project was finding the right balance between addressing sensitive mental health issues and creating a user experience that felt approachable and supportive. Many people understand the benefits of addressing mental health concerns, yet there remains a lingering sense of stigma that prevents them from seeking help.

This stigma around mental health treatment is not just a personal issue; it’s a broader social problem that we wanted to address in our design. We needed to create tools that would help users recognize and address their mental health needs in a way that felt safe and judgment-free.

Additionally, we faced the challenge of translating complex psychological insights into intuitive design elements, ensuring that our solution was both effective and easy to use. Through continuous user feedback and iteration, we worked hard to create an experience that could genuinely support users in a respectful, accessible, and destigmatizing way.

Winning the Vega Award has had a profound impact on our team, reinforcing our confidence in our design approach and our commitment to social issues like mental health. This recognition has not only validated our methods and creativity but also opened up more opportunities for collaboration and outreach.

It has encouraged us to continue innovating and to take on even more challenging projects that make a real difference. For us, this award serves as a milestone in our journey and a reminder that design can play a powerful role in addressing societal issues.

Our top three favorite aspects of the digital industry are its constant innovation, the ability to create impactful user experiences, and the potential for social change.

Firstly, the digital industry is always evolving, with new technologies and ideas emerging that push the boundaries of what’s possible.

Secondly, digital design allows us to craft user-centered experiences that can truly engage and support users in meaningful ways.

Finally, we value how the digital industry can address societal issues, such as mental health awareness, by making resources and support more accessible to a wider audience.

Living in the United States, we’re part of a highly diverse society that constantly brings forward new ideas. This diversity of race, background, and perspective makes the digital industry here especially unique, as it requires sensitivity and thoughtfulness in addressing issues like mental health.

The diverse experiences we encounter encourage us to approach design with empathy, ensuring that our solutions are inclusive and respectful of individual differences. The U.S. digital industry’s openness to innovation and multicultural insights enables us to create meaningful, socially aware projects.

We envision the digital industry continuing to evolve with a strong focus on personalization, mental health, and ethical technology use. In the next 5-10 years, advanced technologies like enhanced interactive forms, supercomputing, and brain-computer interfaces will likely become more prevalent, allowing for new and immersive user experiences.

We believe that as the industry advances, design will need to address important considerations around ethics, privacy, and transparency. This evolution toward more personalized, ethically aware, and technologically sophisticated designs will help shape a future that is both innovative and responsible.

AI and Automation Integration: AI and automation will continue to play a larger role in the design process. From tools that assist in rapid prototyping to AI-driven user research and data analysis, designers will have more powerful resources at their fingertips. However, the human touch—creativity and empathy—will remain irreplaceable, meaning designers will need to balance AI's efficiency with emotional intelligence and storytelling.

Our advice would be to stay curious and constantly seek to understand the real needs of users, while pursuing advancements in technology and innovation. The digital industry is always changing, so it’s important to be open to learning and adapting as new tools and trends emerge, especially in fields like AI, interactive design, and immersive technologies.

Focus on building a strong foundation in technical skills and design thinking, while being mindful of the social and ethical impact of your work. Finally, don’t hesitate to take on projects that are personally meaningful—passion, purpose, and a drive for innovation can set your work apart and lead to impactful, award-worthy designs.

If we had to recommend two essential reads for anyone looking to improve their design skills, they would be:

1. "The Design of Everyday Things" by Don Norman – This book was one of my early inspirations and remains a must-read for anyone interested in human-centered design. It offers invaluable insights into understanding user behavior, and how to create intuitive, functional designs that truly serve the people interacting with them. It’s an excellent foundation for anyone looking to grasp the psychology behind effective design.

2. "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug – This is another foundational book that shaped my approach to web usability and intuitive design. Krug’s simple, yet profound, advice on making things as easy as possible for users has become a guiding principle in my work. This book is perfect for understanding the critical role usability plays in web and product design, ensuring that users can navigate without friction.

These two books laid the groundwork for my understanding of design and are a fantastic starting point for anyone aiming to improve their skills in the design industry.

Jiahui: I’m deeply inspired by philosophers, especially Michel Foucault, whose work delves into human desires, needs, and societal structures. While design and philosophy may seem distant, I see them as fundamentally connected, both centered on understanding people. Foucault’s insights into how human behavior is shaped by social forces have profoundly influenced my design approach.

His philosophy reminds me that design isn’t just about aesthetics or usability—it’s about exploring the deeper motivations and desires that drive people. This perspective helps me look beyond surface-level needs and create experiences that resonate with users on a meaningful level.

Yixuan: My pet cat has a unique way of teaching me something important about UX design. Most of the time, she’s a picture of calm—lounging in the sun, totally content. But then, out of nowhere, she’ll launch into these sudden bursts of energy, sprinting through the house, leaping onto furniture, and darting around as if she’s on a mission. It’s chaotic and unpredictable, but that’s where I see an interesting lesson for UX design.

In UX, we often aim for consistency and predictability—users expect a smooth, reliable experience. But sometimes, those sudden bursts of creativity or unexpected moments are what truly engage users. Much like my cat’s unpredictable energy makes her more intriguing, adding small, surprising elements of delight in UX can turn a functional product into something memorable. Think of the little animations, micro-interactions, or playful features that catch users off guard in a good way—those are the “crazy cat moments” in design that keep users engaged.

What I’ve also learned from my cat is the importance of balance. While those moments of delight are crucial, they need to be used sparingly. Just as my cat eventually returns to her calm, predictable state, UX design should primarily remain intuitive and easy to navigate, giving users a sense of control. Too many surprises or bursts of creativity can overwhelm and frustrate users. So, just like with my cat, it’s about knowing when to inject that burst of energy to captivate users and when to return to simplicity and consistency to keep the experience smooth.

In short, my cat’s behavior has shown me that while consistency in UX is important, those well-timed moments of unexpected delight can elevate a design from good to unforgettable.

We’re inspired by those who see the world as full of questions. Often, we focus on solving problems, but even more important is the ability to identify and question them. Innovators who constantly challenge assumptions and seek to uncover new perspectives motivate us to approach our work with curiosity and critical thinking. Their influence reminds us that the best designs come not just from answers, but from the questions we’re willing to ask